Bush Flying

[Coneman 71]

I'm one of those that likes to fly everything, and I can see the huge possibilities of bush flying in the new sim. With world sat data we'll have all the bush strips you can ask for (depending on quality coverage of course). I can only imagine what Alaska will be like, and hope to see some shots soon. Landing on sand bars, commuter Twin Otter flights in the Solomons, C208 in PNG, strips in Africa, etc., etc. The mind boggles.

[Dominique_K 10,137]

I am with you here. I don't know whether the autogen will be up to it in Africa, PNG or the Solomons . but I think that many of us are ready to do some extra work if we have the SDK tools for it. And I hope that the Orbx two PNG sceneries will be adapted !

Also add Idaho to Alaska ! 

Edited October 4, 2019 by domkle

[188AHC 2,138]

Absolutely. Landing in the challenging bush strips in Flight was one of my favorite activities. This should be great in MSFS. 

[Paraffin 2,197]

The key to bush plane (and helicopter) success will be how they handle surface detail close to the ground.

One of the things I don't like about strictly ortho scenery is how everything pixellates into a blur on the ground, so when you're landing off-airport you can't judge height to flare in a fixed wing, or height to ground in a descending helicopter. Orbx TE solves that with a fine-grained overlay on top of the lower-res ortho blur, so you see at least a little texture on the ground.

It will be interesting to see how MSFS handles it. We've seen the procedural grass, and if they can do that kind of thing with a variety of different ground elements for cues to distance while landing off-airport, it will be great.

[bonchie 2,305]

1 hour ago, Paraffin said:

The key to bush plane (and helicopter) success will be how they handle surface detail close to the ground.

One of the things I don't like about strictly ortho scenery is how everything pixellates into a blur on the ground, so when you're landing off-airport you can't judge height to flare in a fixed wing, or height to ground in a descending helicopter. Orbx TE solves that with a fine-grained overlay on top of the lower-res ortho blur, so you see at least a little texture on the ground.

It will be interesting to see how MSFS handles it. We've seen the procedural grass, and if they can do that kind of thing with a variety of different ground elements for cues to distance while landing off-airport, it will be great.

They are using ZL19 and detail down to 3cm in some areas, so it should be clear to the ground.

But the bigger thing that will fix the issue you are talking about is the procedural grass overlay. You won't be seeing the ground texture below 200-300 feet. You can see this in action in some of the recent B roll with the takeoff from Renton.

Edited October 4, 2019 by bonchie

[TuFun 433]

 

Bush flights with the Beaver would be great!  Also at Flight Sim 2019 RAF Museum Cosford, Deadstick will demo their simulator this weekend. Airland will be showing off their Helicopter sim too. Good stuff 2020!

 

Edited October 4, 2019 by TuFun

[Coneman 71]

5 hours ago, domkle said:

Also add Idaho to Alaska ! 

Of course. I don't even think about it. I live there 😄

Edited October 4, 2019 by Coneman

[Dominique_K 10,137]

10 hours ago, Paraffin said:

 

Landing a bush plane, I do that all the time, and landing an heli, I crash them all the time, are two different exercises, all  things being equal. 

Most of the strips we have are LC textures or orthos small patches on terrain somewhat worked with a paint program filters. A little blurry for sure but not too much. Add trees and bushes and the fake static 3D grass, flaring is no problem. The problem are mainly the environment (trees, hills etc), the slope, the irregularities of the terrain , the shortness. 

I look forward to the grass as an eye candy AND to lighten the work of making sceneries. Agains speaking of aircraft.

[Noooch 1,084]

A nice touch would be some dirt flying on the windshield and soil it when we land on a dirt runway.

[sightseer 895]

I got the impression that the basic ortho is covered by a great deal of procedural stuff...nearly everything is procedural.  It was one of the FSElite interview videos.

Im not sure it matters what the runway type is when everything is procedural.

[Dominique_K 10,137]

Hey Dave am I  wrong you posted something here about shaders ? I saw it yesterday evening just before going to bed, wanted to read and answer it today but I don't see anything.  One my post has disappeared to.

As Avsim has had hiccups on my side for the last 12 hours, I wonder...

Edited October 6, 2019 by domkle

[sightseer 895]

4 hours ago, domkle said:

Hey Dave am I  wrong you posted something here about shaders ? I saw it yesterday evening just before going to bed, wanted to read and answer it today but I don't see anything.  One my post has disappeared to.

As Avsim has had hiccups on my side for the last 12 hours, I wonder...

No. You're not wrong. we had a short conversation that seems missing.

I also just got notified of a 'like' that i actually got two weeks ago (and was notified at that time as well).  hiccups for sure.

Also missing is where it used to say under "Next unread Topic" was what that Topic title was.

[Dominique_K 10,137]

2 hours ago, sightseer said:

No. You're not wrong. we had a short conversation that seems missing.

I also just got notified of a 'like' that i actually got two weeks ago (and was notified at that time as well).  hiccups for sure.

Also missing is where it used to say under "Next unread Topic" was what that Topic title was.

To get back to the conversation as I remember it. What I call procedural runway or rather strip  (and again maybe it is the wrong word) is the algorithm which says flatten the terrain/draw a rectangle/dress it up with this image as opposed to a handcrafted small patch of orthos improved with Photoshop pasted on the mesh. There is no shader here. I see shaders as a mean to add snow or puddle or change the color of the strip (dryness, wetness) etc. And that I don't know how to do it.

[188AHC 2,138]

Flight had very nice and fairly realistic dirt and gravel runways. So, I think this analysis of the structure of the runways and how they are derived is much ado about nothing.

We will see more eventually.

[Coneman 71]

My previous response is gone as well. I noticed in the latest video of the Skyhawk launching from Renton, that the grass alongside the runway is generating during progression down the runway. I'm assuming this is procedural and the result of shaders? If this is automatically calculated across the planet, it will certainly add more dimension to bush strips. This will be a whole new ball game (for flightsim at least).

Dave, I'm still using your clouds and sky, nothing better (Todd from Orbx forum).

(I don't think the missing posts were accidental).

Edited October 6, 2019 by Coneman